Going Public – Going Places
Sartorius Facts from the Archives
The year 1990 marked a turning point in Sartorius' corporate history: The company, which had been family run until then, was restructured and went public. Together with its strategic realignment, this pointed the way to the future.
This article is posted on Sartorius Blog.
At the end of the 1980s, the ongoing expansion of the company’s portfolio and modernization of its infrastructure required high investments. Above all, the relocation of membrane filter and component manufacturing resulted in the construction of a completely new factory site.
To diversify its financing base and enable long-term growth, Sartorius went public in 1990.
The "New Plant" in Göttingen - the starting point for development of today's Sartorius Campus, around 1990
Although the company was now managed by executives, the Sartorius family retained the majority of the ordinary shares throughout the period, with the largest amount being administered by an executor since 1998 following the death of Horst Sartorius, who had run the company for decades.
Sartorius had already been a joint stock corporation from 1914 to 1967. Back then, its shares were not freely traded on an exchange, however.
After facing major challenges in the 1990s due to the general economic situation as well as company-specific issues, Sartorius’ strategic realignment and focus on life science research and the biopharmaceutical industry ultimately led to a sustained positive development, also on the capital market.
Sartorius AG share certificate dating from 1990, the year the company went public
Today, Sartorius AG is one of the strongest German technology businesses and among the fastest growing global life science companies. The group has been listed in the TecDAX index since 2012 and in the MSCI Europe and MDAX since 2018. At the end of fiscal 2020, market capitalization was around 23.6 billion euros.
In addition, the subgroup Sartorius Stedim Biotech S.A. founded in 2007 is listed and traded on the Paris Stock Exchange. Since September 2020, shares of Sartorius Stedim Biotech S.A. are listed on the French stock index CAC Next 20 and therefore also on the CAC Large 60 index.
More Information:
Sartorius History
Sartorius Campus
Early Tech Transfer: From Poultry Farming to Microbiology
Investor Relations
